A6
Seniors
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
G RANT C OUNTY S ENIORS
John Day
Seniors
Nicky Essex
Aug. 28, Merry Henry and I
greeted while our friends from
the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints took care of
serving us at the tables, and
they got a workout. Our num-
bers have been up since the
beginning of the month. We
had four full tables this week.
Rachel Carpenter and Suzanne
Taysom are new at this, and we
really appreciate those regular
diners who step up to help, es-
pecially Billie Bullard. I know
there were others too.
Earlier, Rachel and Suzanne
did deliveries to the John Day
and Canyon City area, while
Amber and Rodney from Step
Forward took the Mt. Vernon
route. These angels delivered a
total of 31 regular and 26 fro-
zen meals.
Drew had “mic” duty. We
didn’t have much in the way
of announcements, but he did
tell us it was National Turnover
Day. We were honored by Jean
Willey’s son, Pete, who opened
our time with the flag salute.
Pete and his wife, Ann Marie,
were here visiting. Drawing
winners: The free meal went
to Suzanne Taysom, the Len’s
Drug certificate went to Evelyn
Sheets and the Harrison Ranch
Produce certificate went to Kay
Cotham. Dale Stennett gave
the blessing over our meal. We
had beefy cowboy bake (biscuit
crust topped with taco meat and
a cheesy cream sauce). We also
enjoyed loaded mashed po-
tatoes, Mexican corn and, for
dessert, cheesy berry turnovers.
I’m telling you, I was taught to
clean my plate, but I really had
to work at it; if you didn’t get
enough to eat, you have a prob-
lem.
Thursday, Aug. 31, Drew
Harmer was at the desk greet-
ing, and the Blue Mountain
Hospital Auxiliary was here
to serve us. The crew included
Virginia Miller, Mary Lou Hor-
ton, Kris Labhart, Mary Jones
and Jayd Roba. Jayd helped set
the tables and serve. Thanks to
all. Virginia and Mary Lou de-
livered meals to John Day and
Canyon City while Rodney and
his crew took the Mt. Vernon
route. Total meals delivered
were 31 and 20 frozen. Virginia
Miller did the flag salute, and
drawing winners were Ronda
Barnard, Valley View meal cer-
tificate, Leona Meador, Ches-
ter’s Thriftway certificate, and
Drew Harmer, Harrison Ranch
Produce certificate.
Veanne shared that Larry
Schmitz has passed away. His
service will be held at 5 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 6, at the Elks
Lodge. Larry’s son Joe has gift-
ed the senior center with some
of Larry’s possessions, some of
which were spoken for quickly.
Thanks so much, Joe.
We had Hawaiian BBQ
chicken with steamed rice, sun-
shine carrots and banana mon-
key bread for dessert. Yummy
as always. Thursday, Sept. 7,
we’ll have Salisbury steak and
birthday cake, and Monday,
Sept. 11, we’ll have ham and
scalloped potatoes.
I know others here will miss
our sweet friend Carman Go-
mez-Pascual (Balbina Escude-
ro’s niece) as she has returned
home to Spain. She so gener-
ously stayed through three days
of eclipse brunches to help us.
Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be
strong and courageous. Do not
be afraid or terrified because
of them, for the Lord your God
goes with you; he will never
leave you nor forsake you.”
Monument
Seniors
Soo Yukawa
We’ve been having scorch-
ing temps here in Monument.
But hey, on the bright side,
I’ve got tomatoes ripening
on the vine, and that is wor-
thy of praise. To combat
this nasty hot weather, our
cooks, Terry Cade and Car-
rie Jewell, served us chef’s
salad for our Tuesday lunch.
There was a choice of turkey
or ham meat or both for your
salad. The other sides includ-
ed olives, cheese, tomatoes,
celery, boiled eggs, croutons
and other such items. It was
quite refreshing having some-
thing cool to eat to offset the
very unrelenting heat outside.
Thank you to our chefs, and
we are also grateful for our se-
nior center that has air condi-
tioning. We are very fortunate
to have such a nice facility.
Our greeters were Bodean
Andersen, Jimmy Cole and
Linda Blakeslee. Bodean led
us in the flag salute, made the
announcements and prayed
the blessing over our meal.
Jimmy and Linda collected
and counted the money. Ron
Odette of Long Creek and
Charlotte Barker of Monu-
ment both won free meals
tickets. We had visitors Den-
nis Dice and Joe Hitz join us
for lunch. We had 48 guests
on the books and four take-
outs.
A local supporter has gen-
erously offered to match all
the money we can get donated
toward the purchase of new-
er appliances for our senior
center kitchen, up to $1,500.
We need everyone’s help to
make this happen and a great
opportunity to make your do-
nations count. We have a jar at
the greeting table. Everyone
pitching in will all add up and
everyone’s help will be much
appreciated. The board of the
Monument Senior Citizen’s
Association thank you all for
your support and contribu-
tions.
Hope you all have marked
your calendars for the upcom-
ing Buckaroo Fall and Har-
vest Festival. Remember that
it will be on Sept. 23. Many
donations are coming in for
both the live and silent auc-
tions. There will be a beer
garden again this year, com-
pliments of Jordan and Britta-
ny Desadier. To go along with
that beer, Jay Jay Snackfoods,
has donated 400 handmade
pretzels for purchase.
If you would like more
information, you can find the
Monument Buckaroo Festi-
val and Harvest Auction on
Facebook. There you will find
items that are being donated,
auctioned and other pertinent
information. You can get a
sneak peek at the items up for
auction.
I don’t know about you all,
but I sure am ready for sum-
mer to be over and would love
to welcome fall with open
arms. The long, consecutive
and hot days makes it a little
difficult to do much outside.
Hot temps, you will definitely
not be missed in the least.
Taking a siesta during the
hot afternoon is my best solu-
tion to keep busy, ha. Well,
actually, after lunch, I sit
down at my couch and I can
instantly fall asleep in 15 sec-
onds. The sofa must give off a
sleeping pill or something.
Psalm 119: 2 “Blessed are
they that keep his testimonies,
and that seek him with the
whole heart.”
Prairie City
Seniors
Rose Coombs
Our food for thought: “If
you can smile when some-
thing goes wrong, you are
either an optimist – or a re-
pairman.” So I’m smiling.
We thought that Derrol would
be having his shoulder sur-
gery in early September, but
the anomaly on the EKG got
everyone excited so we have
to have consultation with the
cardiologist first. And unless
the surgeon can get it moved,
that won’t happen until Octo-
ber. So Derrol found another
rock/dirt project to work on
for the interim.
We took a tour to Green-
horn and Olive Lake. The roads
were interesting. Seemed like
the ones in Grant County and
on the Malheur forest were
not as well maintained as the
ones in Baker County and the
Umatilla forest. Came back by
Indian Rock Lookout, and that
road is a road in name only.
Whew. Lots of archery hunt-
ers out there, too. My personal
opinion is that if I had a tag for
the Desolation Unit, I’d give
it back. As the Harney Coun-
ty buckaroo was heard to say:
“Hell of a place to lose a cow.”
But we survived the journey.
Tried to come back by way of
Lick Creek and over the top
to Dixie Creek, but we took a
wrong turn due to no signpost.
Try again from this end. Ain’t
life fun in Grant County?
And can you believe 300 peo-
ple on top of Strawberry for the
eclipse? Now that is really stand-
ing room only. But what a view.
We were happy to welcome
several new faces to our meal,
one of which was Cliff Marsh,
who Frances asked to lead the
flag salute. Del Lake was the
winner of the August birthday
$10 gift certificate donated
by Huffman’s Select Market.
Since the closure of Prairie
Hardware and Gifts, we have
only one other gift certificate
to give every month, and that
is from Chuck’s Little Diner.
Anybody got any bright ideas
for this endeavor? We really
appreciate the donations of all
three businesses through the
years. Thank you much.
Tom announced that the zuc-
chini monster was on the loose
so you should lock your car
doors and roll up the windows.
He brought a large sack of yel-
low and green zucchini, and Del
Lake brought some from his
neighbors, sized from small to
humongous. Most of them went
to new homes. Good deal.
So after Jack asked the
blessing, we had orange juice,
couscous with hamburger
sauce, corn on the cob, fresh
green beans, rolls and a cream
puff for dessert. Now there are
two items in that list that I don’t
remember eating before: the
couscous and the cream puff.
But I am here to tell you that
they were both delicious. And I
am sure that the 56 diners listed
on the book would agree. And
so was the corn on the cob.
Yum, yum, yummy.
Did you know that when our
presidents and congressmen
“retire,” they receive a salary
of $174,000 to $223,500 (de-
pending on their office) for life?
Gee, wouldn’t that be nice? Is
this what the founding fathers
desired? I think not.
Eccl. 5:10 “Whoever loves
money never has enough mon-
ey; whoever loves wealth is
never satisfied with his income.
This … is meaningless.” 1 Tim:
6:10 “For the love of money is
a root of all kinds of evil.”
Church Services In Grant County
Come Worship with us at